CHICAGO -- The night belonged to Case Keenum. And so did a game ball.
After leading the Chicago Bears to a dominant 27-7 win over the perennial NFC heavyweight Philadelphia Eagles on Monday, which marked his first start in 1,009 days, Keenum was handed the commemorative football and the floor in the postgame locker room at Soldier Field.
With quarterbacks Caleb Williams and Tyson Bagent looking on behind him, Keenum delivered a passionate postgame speech about his 67th career start. He talked about how his opportunities to play meaningful football had routinely been taken away and how he rediscovered his love for the game after coach Ben Johnson persuaded him to come out of retirement and be a part of Chicago's quarterback room in 2025.
With Williams dealing with a Grade 2 hamstring strain that is expected to keep him out three to four weeks and Bagent not clearing the NFL's concussion protocol until Sunday, the Bears turned to their third-string quarterback to get their second win of the season.
"It's all about Case Keenum and what he was able to do here tonight," Johnson said. "I thought he did an extraordinary job."
At 38 years and 223 days old, Keenum became the second-oldest quarterback in franchise history to win a start (Todd Collins has him beat by 116 days). Chicago's 20-point win was its largest on "Monday Night Football" since Week 15 of the 2010 season at the Vikings.
Keenum didn't resemble a backup quarterback who was trying to keep his team afloat in the absence of its starter. He accounted for three touchdowns and zero turnovers in the win, leading Chicago on an 11-play, 66-yard opening drive that ended with Keenum finding Luther Burden III for an 8-yard touchdown.
Keenum later connected with Kalif Raymond on a 41-yard touchdown late in the third quarter and dove into the end zone on a 1-yard quarterback sneak. Keenum has won games as a starting quarterback with seven different franchises, tying his former Texans teammate Ryan Fitzpatrick for the most in NFL history.
"Playing well anytime in your career feels good," Keenum said. "To do it on 'Monday Night Football' after you thought you weren't ever going to play again multiple times. Golly, this is special. It's really special. And I don't know if I'll be able to put it into words tonight, but I'm going to enjoy it tonight, that's for sure."
Keenum orchestrated an offensive performance that relied on its passing attack. As the Eagles focused on stopping Chicago's run game, Keenum completed 24 of 34 attempts for 247 passing yards and two touchdowns.
He showed poise in the face of pressure. Philadelphia defensive coordinator Vic Fangio sent 12 blitzes, and the results were disastrous for the Eagles: Keenum finished 11-of-11 for 145 yards and two touchdowns when the Eagles sent additional rushers.
At halftime, Johnson told ESPN's broadcast that the Bears needed more from a run game that had mustered just 27 yards in the first two quarters. When Chicago struggled to get D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai going until late, Johnson refused to take the ball out of Keenum's hands.
That's when the quarterback said Johnson's belief in his abilities felt the strongest.
"Maybe when he kept throwing it," Keenum said. "[Johnson] was like, 'Hey, we're going to throw it,' and I'm like, 'All right. Cool.' Let's keep going. And that trust, he showed it, not just said it."
Keenum was the only Bears quarterback on the active roster to practice all three days last week as he prepared for his first regular-season start since Dec. 24, 2023. He said he put in 14- to 16-hour days, during which he barely saw his family and kept his phone on 'do not disturb' and answered calls only from Johnson and his wife, Kimberly.
Keenum's preparation paid off, and his readiness was something Johnson could foreshadow.
"It was the night before the game. We always do our quarterback meeting," Johnson said. "He ran the show, and the coaching staff kind of took a back seat. There were no reminders from us. He was just going through the list of every single play that was on the plan, and what he was going to do, and gave us his favorites. And that was really -- I thought that right there is a good indicator of what it's going to look like on game day."
Keenum's teammates felt the same way after the quarterback spoke to the team before kickoff.
"He was like, 'I may not be a cowboy, but this is definitely not my first rodeo,'" Raymond said. "A lot of confidence in him, a lot of confidence in himself. And to be honest, he practices, preps every week, but particularly this week, we didn't expect anything different from him."
Keenum is the latest backup to deliver a win after injuries have decimated the NFL's starting quarterbacks. Teams that have started their non-Week 1 quarterback are 6-0 this season. It's the most wins, let alone the best record, by teams without their Week 1 starting QB through three weeks of a season since the 1970 merger (excluding the 1987 players' strike), according to ESPN Research.